Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Progress Check Number 3

As advised in the newsletter last week, as a school we are continuing to report to students and parents on how our students are progressing, even while in remote learning.  In last week’s newsletter information was included about what we are reporting on and there was a copy of the assessment rubric being utilised by teachers for the progress check. Our third round of Progress Checks will be released to parents and students via Compass  this Friday May 15. To access the Progress Check results, log into your Compass Portal and you will see the link from your dashboard.  If you want to use your mobile app, you will need to open the web browser. Please make sure you do check to stay informed about your child’s/children’s progress. If you have any issues accessing the report, please contact our General Office for assistance.

Feedback on Remote Learning

This week we have sent out a short survey to collect parent feedback on the provision of remote learning to date this term. It involves answering 10 questions on a five point scale related to teaching and learning, student wellbeing and connectedness within the remote learning context. Please take the time to complete this, so we can utilise this feedback to make any further improvements while we remain in remote learning mode. All responses are anonymous. The link is included here for your convenience: https://results.pivotpl.com/pulse/418

Transitioning back to Onsite Learning

As communicated on Tuesday via Compass email, followed up by a more detailed letter sent out to all parents and students on Wednesday, arrangements have now been formally announced by the government for Victorian students' return to school this term. Please refer to a copy of my letter here, if you missed the email.

I will continue to keep families fully informed with any further information about this transition back to onsite learning as information is officially communicated to Principals by the Department of Education.

In addition to the state declared pupil free day on Monday May 25, there will be no formal lessons posted on Google Classroom or Compass for students on Friday May 22. Instead we are encouraging families to have a day focused on student/family wellbeing and/or an opportunity for students to catch up on any work that hasn’t been completed to date. These days will be utilised by staff to support the planning of remote learning continuing for Years 7-10 students and onsite learning for our Year 11 and 12 students. In addition, Years 7-10 teachers will also be starting to plan together for the transition back to onsite learning for the last three weeks of this term. This has been endorsed by School Council.

Facility Development

We have just completed the design development stage and have one final step in the approval process before we move onto construction documentation for our major capital works project of a two storey Year 7 & 8 learning centre. We are still waiting for that all important funding announcement in the October State budget, but I have let the VSBA (Victorian Schools Building Authority) know Mordialloc College would be very happy to stimulate the economy! Please note: once this new building is completed,  the current Year 7 Learning Centre, which has been refurbished for our current Year 7s, will undergo further modifications for it to be utilised as a VCE study centre with additional classrooms in the future.

Here are some of the images and colour schemes of the proposed new two storey building we have been working on with the architect and design team.

Literacy

Literacy underpins all learning and as such we can’t emphasise enough the importance of reading each night and this should be part of all students' homework plan if they aren’t already reading for pleasure. Twenty minutes a day can make a huge difference for a student in developing their use and understanding of vocabulary. See article below:

Students are able to make requests at the Hub help desk for future purchases if there is a book they would like to read in hard copy that is not in our current collection, and we also have our e-book borrowing system with a wide variety of novels.

Update on Staffing

• Annette Matov – Mental Health practitioner (Social Worker) commenced maternity leave on 27 April. We welcome Jo Emery appointed to this family leave position MHP – Social Worker, who started on May 7 working four days a week (Tuesday-Friday)
• Katie Haywood – has been re-appointed to a permanent position as our Youth Worker 2 days a week.
• Julia Agar-Wilson (sickbay, newsletter and administration) – has been appointed to this part-time role.

Professional Learning

Our meeting structure with teachers has continued through remote learning, being very mindful of the need to cater for staff needs in our current circumstances. Just as Google Meet is utilised with classes, we also utilise this online platform for our various meetings with staff.

PLCs (professional learning communities) continue on Monday afternoons, with small groups of 3-5 staff meeting together to focus on:

Remote learning and ensuring they are catering for their students, working together to:

• Create tasks that suit remote learning
• Catering to the students in their class (below expected level, at level and above expected level) with differentiated learning tasks
• Sharing strategies to accommodate different learning abilities
• Dividing the work between the PLC

In their PLC, it should still be possible for teachers to continue to use our inquiry cycle – thus, still gather data and plan to address the needs of their students. Key questions: -

• What does my data tell me?
• What do I need to plan?
• Where do I go next with the learning?
• Will I be catering to all my students?